Hawaii Senate Committee Passes Resolution on AspartameBy Stephen Fox, 3/13/2008 10:49:31 AMThere is now a Hawaii Senate Resolution authored by Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, which requests the Department of Health and National Academy of Sciences to review existing reports and studies related to aspartame, by funding source.It resolves that given the enormous amount of evidence that has been compiled concerning the neurodegenerative harm it can cause, that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is requested to rescind approval of aspartame immediately on a phase-out basis over six months to one year.We are very pleased to note that this is the strongest legislative document concerning aspartame ever presented anywhere in the world.On March 12, another resolution, HCR132, introduced by Rep. Josh Green, M.D., Chairman of the House Committee on Health, was approved by its first committee (Health) and moves on to the next (Consumer Protection and Commerce).This would set up a work group to explore the need to ban or improve labeling containing aspartame. It was again opposed by Dr. Chiyome Fukino, M.D., Director of the Health Department, an appointee of Republican Governor Linda Lingle, who opposed the House Bill to ban aspartame on the flawed basis of an Ajinomoto-funded review study; Ajinomoto is the world’s largest manufacturer of Aspartame, and another proven neurotoxic food additive, Monosodium Glutamate.Betty Martini, D. Hum, sent Dr. Fukino a detailed rebuttal to this study, showing the links to Ajinomoto, and flawed industry research. Dr. Fukino's opposition today, March 12 was surprisingly opposed by Rep. Green, M.D., the only physician in the entire Hawaii Legislature, in view of him having “deferred” a prior bill to ban aspartame outright, by statute.Here is the rebuttal to the Ajinomoto Study, written by Mark Gold, Founder, Aspartame Toxicity Information Center, New Hampshire: http://www. holisticmed. com/aspartame/burdock/This flawed Ajinomoto-funded report, which has been touted far and wide by aspartame manufacturers and corporate hacks and lobbyists, shows how far the world’s largest aspartame manufacturer will go to deceive the public. However, today, there is no doubt that Ajinomoto’s Board of Directors as well as the Board of Directors of Coca Cola, Pepsi, Wrigley’s Gum, and Merisant (manufacturer of Equal) extremely worried about these late-breaking developments in Hawaii, which should also encourage consumer protection activists all over the world to contact their legislators and parliamentarians, asking them to introduce similar legislation and Resolutions. We cordially thank Senator Chun Oakland and Representative Josh Green, M.D., for advancing our consumer protection initiative as far as they have.Text of Senate Resolution:Requesting the Department of Health and the National Academy of Sciences to review existing reports and studies related to Aspartame, and Requesting the United States Food and Drug Administration to Rescind Approval for United States Markets, carried by Hawaii Senator Suzanne Chun OaklandWhereas, aspartame was originally developed as a drug to treat peptic ulcers; and Whereas, manufacturers state that aspartame is made up of forty per cent aspartic acid, fifty percent phenylalanine, and ten per cent methanol; andWhereas, aspartic acid is a nonessential amino acid that is used by the body to initiate apoptosis or cell death in aging cells, and that excess aspartic acid from aspartame consumption causes apoptosis in health cells that can destroy healthy tissue, especially in the brain; andWhereas, phenylalanine is an essential amino acid found naturally in protein but when isolated becomes neurotoxic, lowers the seizure threshold, depletes serotonin triggering psychiatric and behavioral problems, and interacts with depressants and other drugs; andWhereas, methanol is a severe metabolic poison classified as a narcotic that converts to formaldehyde and formic acid, and can embalm living tissue and damage DNA; andWhereas, aspartame metabolites include formaldehyde, a “class A” carcinogen, diketopiperazine, a brain tumor agent, and formic acid, andWhereas, in 1974, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved aspartame as an artificial sweetener, but asked its manufacturer Searle to hold back from selling it on the market until further tests could be made with regards to its safety; andWhereas, scientific data revealed that there was a problem with aspartame safety date and the United States Food and Drug Administration withdrew its approval; andWhereas, in 1975, the United States Food and Drug Administration initiated an investigation into Searle’s laboratory practices and discovered fraud in scientific experiments as well as manipulated data giving favorable results proving aspartame to be safe; andWhereas, the results of this investigation are included in what is called “The Bressler Report” by Jerome Bressler; and Whereas, in 1980, Dr. John Olney submitted scientific data to a United States Food and Drug Administration Public Board of Inquiry showing that aspartic acid, the excitotoxic ingredient in aspartame, caused holes in the brains of mice; andWhereas, Dr. John Olney stated that it warranted special emphasis that excitotoxins act by an acute but silent mechanism, requiring only a single exposure for CVO neurons to be quietly destroyed, that clearly Searle failed to establish the safety of their product, aspartame, for use in children’s food, and that all age comparative data support the following conclusions: (1) orally administered excitotoxins destroy CVO neurons at any age; (2) immature animals are most vulnerable; and (3) the toxic threshold increases only gradually between birth and adulthood; andWhereas, in 1980, the Public Board of Inquiry unanimously voted against aspartame approval, but was overruled by a new United States Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes, against the advice of Food and Drug Administration scientific personnel and advisers; and Whereas, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved aspartame use in sodas, despite the fact that the National Soft Drink Association argued vehemently against aspartame in these quotes from their protest:* (1) “The present record does not contain date which demonstrate that the use of APM in soft drinks will not result in the adulteration of the beverages under Section 402(a)(3) of the FDC Act 21 U.S.S. 342 (a)(3), which provides that a food is adulterated if it contains, in whole or in part, “a decomposed substance or it is otherwise unfit for food”);(2) “An important decomposition product of aspartame, aspartic acid, cannot be detected at all using TLC”;(3)”G.D. Searle and Company has not demonstrated to a reasonable certainty that the use of aspartame in soft drinks, without quantitative limitations, will not adversely affect human health as a result of the changes such use is likely to cause in brain chemistry and under certain reasonably anticipated conditions of use”; and(4) “Specifically, Searle has not met its burdens under section 409….to demonstrate that aspartame is safe and functional for use in soft drinks. Collectively, the extensive deficiencies in the stability studies conducted by Searle to demonstrate that aspartame and its degradation products are safe in soft drinks intended to be sold in the United States, render those studies inadequate and unreliable.” Senate Congressional Record, May 7, 1985, S5507-5511: andWhereas, the United States Food and Drug Administration has compiled a list of ninety-two symptoms attributed to aspartame consumption including four types of seizures, coma, and death; andWhereas, the Ramazzini Studies by the European Foundation for Oncology in Italy conducted exhaustive studies over three years with thousands of rats, and proved aspartame to be multipotential carcinogen, thus confirming the United States Food and Drug Administration’s original findings; andWhereas, the United States Food and Drug Administration admitted that aspartame caused cancer over two decades ago when the Administration’s toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross, told Congress at least one of Searle’s studies “has established beyond any reasonable doubt that aspartame is capable of inducing brain tumors in experimental animals and that this predisposition of it is of extremely high significance….In view of these indications that the cancer causing potential of aspartame is a matter that had been established way beyond any reasonable doubt, one can ask: What is the reason for the apparent refusal by the FDA to invoke for this food additive the so-called Delaney amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic act? Given the cancer causing potential of aspartame, how would the FDA justify its position that it views a certain amount of aspartame as constituting an allowable daily intake or “safe” level of it? Is that position in effect not equivalent to setting a ‘tolerance’ for this food additive and thus a violation of that law? And if the FDA itself elects to violate the law, who is left to protect the health of the public?” Congressional Record, August 1, 1985, SID835: 131: andWhereas , aspartame is linked to sudden death, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and many neurodegenerative diseases, as cited in may medical texts, most notably: Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, by H.J. Roberts, M.D., and Excitotoxins: the Taste that Kills, By Russell Blaylock, M.D., andWhereas, on November 3, 1987, Dr. Louis Elsas told Congress: “I am a pediatrician, a Professor of Pediatrics at Emory and Have spent twenty-five years in the biomedical sciences, trying to prevent mental retardation and birth defect caused by excess phenylalanine,and therein lies my basic concern, that aspartame is in fact a well known neurotoxin and teratogen which, in some as yet undefined dose, will irreversibly in the developing child or fetal brain, produce adverse effects:’ andWhereas, there are tens of thousands of case histories and anecdotal accounts from victims of aspartame poisoning who have come forward to make their case histories known; now, therefore,BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Department of Health is requested to create, within their existing budget, an evidentiary repository accessible to the public for patients and physicians to submit of the next year their cases involving victims of aspartame poisoning; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Director of Health is requested to report to the Legislature on the status of the evidentiary repository during periodic interim meetings with the Chairs of the Hawaii State Senate Committees on Health and Human Services and Public Housing, the House of Representatives Committees on Health and Human Services and Housing, and the state Attorney General; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to review all existing reports, studies, experiments, and related literature on aspartame, including clinical studies, differentiating each study by its funding source, and submit a report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the 2008 Regular Session; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Nation Academy of Sciences is requested to review all existing reports, studies, experiments, and related literature on aspartame, including clinical studies, differentiating each study by its funding source, and that, if funding is required to undertake this extended evaluation, that the appropriate funding be sought from various foundations and from Congress; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that given the enormous amount of evidence that has been compiled concerning the neurodegenerative harm it can cause, that the United States Food and Drug Administration is requested to rescind approval of aspartame immediately on a phase-out basis over six months to one year; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the members of Hawaii’s Congressional Delegation, the Commissioner of the Untied States Food and Drug Administration, the Executive Director of the National Academy of Sciences, the Director of Health, the Director of Human Services, the Attorney General, and the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.The resolution was signed by 40 percent of the Senate including: Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland,Chair, Human Services Committee, primary sponsorSenator Robert Bunda, President Emeritus, Hawaii SenateSenator Kalani English, Chairman, Transportation and International AffairsSenator Will Espero, Chairman, Public Safety CommitteeSenator Carol Fukunaga, Vice Chair, Health CommitteeSenator David Ige, Chairman, Health CommitteeSenator Les Ihara, Majority Policy LeaderSenator Donna Mercado Kim, Vice President of Hawaii SenateSenator Ron Menor, Chairman, Energy and EnvironmentSenator Clarence Nishihara, Chairman, Tourism and Government OperationsFor more information, please contact Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland at 808-586-6130; fax 808-586-6131 email mailto:senchunoakland@Capitol.hawaii.gov or Rep. Josh Green, M.D. 808-586-9605; fax 808-586-9608 From the Big Island, toll free 974-4000 + 69605E-mail or at mailto:repgreen@Capitol.hawaii.govStephen Fox is the Managing Editor, Santa Fe Sun News and Founder, New Millennium Fine Art. More at mailto:stephen@santafefineart.comMahalo:Nini'ane
Hawaii Senate Committee Passes Resolution on AspartameBy Stephen Fox, 3/13/2008 10:49:31 AMThere is now a Hawaii Senate Resolution authored by Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland, which requests the Department of Health and National Academy of Sciences to review existing reports and studies related to aspartame, by funding source.It resolves that given the enormous amount of evidence that has been compiled concerning the neurodegenerative harm it can cause, that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is requested to rescind approval of aspartame immediately on a phase-out basis over six months to one year.We are very pleased to note that this is the strongest legislative document concerning aspartame ever presented anywhere in the world.On March 12, another resolution, HCR132, introduced by Rep. Josh Green, M.D., Chairman of the House Committee on Health, was approved by its first committee (Health) and moves on to the next (Consumer Protection and Commerce).This would set up a work group to explore the need to ban or improve labeling containing aspartame. It was again opposed by Dr. Chiyome Fukino, M.D., Director of the Health Department, an appointee of Republican Governor Linda Lingle, who opposed the House Bill to ban aspartame on the flawed basis of an Ajinomoto-funded review study; Ajinomoto is the world’s largest manufacturer of Aspartame, and another proven neurotoxic food additive, Monosodium Glutamate.Betty Martini, D. Hum, sent Dr. Fukino a detailed rebuttal to this study, showing the links to Ajinomoto, and flawed industry research. Dr. Fukino's opposition today, March 12 was surprisingly opposed by Rep. Green, M.D., the only physician in the entire Hawaii Legislature, in view of him having “deferred” a prior bill to ban aspartame outright, by statute.Here is the rebuttal to the Ajinomoto Study, written by Mark Gold, Founder, Aspartame Toxicity Information Center, New Hampshire: http://www. holisticmed. com/aspartame/burdock/This flawed Ajinomoto-funded report, which has been touted far and wide by aspartame manufacturers and corporate hacks and lobbyists, shows how far the world’s largest aspartame manufacturer will go to deceive the public. However, today, there is no doubt that Ajinomoto’s Board of Directors as well as the Board of Directors of Coca Cola, Pepsi, Wrigley’s Gum, and Merisant (manufacturer of Equal) extremely worried about these late-breaking developments in Hawaii, which should also encourage consumer protection activists all over the world to contact their legislators and parliamentarians, asking them to introduce similar legislation and Resolutions. We cordially thank Senator Chun Oakland and Representative Josh Green, M.D., for advancing our consumer protection initiative as far as they have.Text of Senate Resolution:Requesting the Department of Health and the National Academy of Sciences to review existing reports and studies related to Aspartame, and Requesting the United States Food and Drug Administration to Rescind Approval for United States Markets, carried by Hawaii Senator Suzanne Chun OaklandWhereas, aspartame was originally developed as a drug to treat peptic ulcers; and Whereas, manufacturers state that aspartame is made up of forty per cent aspartic acid, fifty percent phenylalanine, and ten per cent methanol; andWhereas, aspartic acid is a nonessential amino acid that is used by the body to initiate apoptosis or cell death in aging cells, and that excess aspartic acid from aspartame consumption causes apoptosis in health cells that can destroy healthy tissue, especially in the brain; andWhereas, phenylalanine is an essential amino acid found naturally in protein but when isolated becomes neurotoxic, lowers the seizure threshold, depletes serotonin triggering psychiatric and behavioral problems, and interacts with depressants and other drugs; andWhereas, methanol is a severe metabolic poison classified as a narcotic that converts to formaldehyde and formic acid, and can embalm living tissue and damage DNA; andWhereas, aspartame metabolites include formaldehyde, a “class A” carcinogen, diketopiperazine, a brain tumor agent, and formic acid, andWhereas, in 1974, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved aspartame as an artificial sweetener, but asked its manufacturer Searle to hold back from selling it on the market until further tests could be made with regards to its safety; andWhereas, scientific data revealed that there was a problem with aspartame safety date and the United States Food and Drug Administration withdrew its approval; andWhereas, in 1975, the United States Food and Drug Administration initiated an investigation into Searle’s laboratory practices and discovered fraud in scientific experiments as well as manipulated data giving favorable results proving aspartame to be safe; andWhereas, the results of this investigation are included in what is called “The Bressler Report” by Jerome Bressler; and Whereas, in 1980, Dr. John Olney submitted scientific data to a United States Food and Drug Administration Public Board of Inquiry showing that aspartic acid, the excitotoxic ingredient in aspartame, caused holes in the brains of mice; andWhereas, Dr. John Olney stated that it warranted special emphasis that excitotoxins act by an acute but silent mechanism, requiring only a single exposure for CVO neurons to be quietly destroyed, that clearly Searle failed to establish the safety of their product, aspartame, for use in children’s food, and that all age comparative data support the following conclusions: (1) orally administered excitotoxins destroy CVO neurons at any age; (2) immature animals are most vulnerable; and (3) the toxic threshold increases only gradually between birth and adulthood; andWhereas, in 1980, the Public Board of Inquiry unanimously voted against aspartame approval, but was overruled by a new United States Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Dr. Arthur Hull Hayes, against the advice of Food and Drug Administration scientific personnel and advisers; and Whereas, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved aspartame use in sodas, despite the fact that the National Soft Drink Association argued vehemently against aspartame in these quotes from their protest:* (1) “The present record does not contain date which demonstrate that the use of APM in soft drinks will not result in the adulteration of the beverages under Section 402(a)(3) of the FDC Act 21 U.S.S. 342 (a)(3), which provides that a food is adulterated if it contains, in whole or in part, “a decomposed substance or it is otherwise unfit for food”);(2) “An important decomposition product of aspartame, aspartic acid, cannot be detected at all using TLC”;(3)”G.D. Searle and Company has not demonstrated to a reasonable certainty that the use of aspartame in soft drinks, without quantitative limitations, will not adversely affect human health as a result of the changes such use is likely to cause in brain chemistry and under certain reasonably anticipated conditions of use”; and(4) “Specifically, Searle has not met its burdens under section 409….to demonstrate that aspartame is safe and functional for use in soft drinks. Collectively, the extensive deficiencies in the stability studies conducted by Searle to demonstrate that aspartame and its degradation products are safe in soft drinks intended to be sold in the United States, render those studies inadequate and unreliable.” Senate Congressional Record, May 7, 1985, S5507-5511: andWhereas, the United States Food and Drug Administration has compiled a list of ninety-two symptoms attributed to aspartame consumption including four types of seizures, coma, and death; andWhereas, the Ramazzini Studies by the European Foundation for Oncology in Italy conducted exhaustive studies over three years with thousands of rats, and proved aspartame to be multipotential carcinogen, thus confirming the United States Food and Drug Administration’s original findings; andWhereas, the United States Food and Drug Administration admitted that aspartame caused cancer over two decades ago when the Administration’s toxicologist, Dr. Adrian Gross, told Congress at least one of Searle’s studies “has established beyond any reasonable doubt that aspartame is capable of inducing brain tumors in experimental animals and that this predisposition of it is of extremely high significance….In view of these indications that the cancer causing potential of aspartame is a matter that had been established way beyond any reasonable doubt, one can ask: What is the reason for the apparent refusal by the FDA to invoke for this food additive the so-called Delaney amendment to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic act? Given the cancer causing potential of aspartame, how would the FDA justify its position that it views a certain amount of aspartame as constituting an allowable daily intake or “safe” level of it? Is that position in effect not equivalent to setting a ‘tolerance’ for this food additive and thus a violation of that law? And if the FDA itself elects to violate the law, who is left to protect the health of the public?” Congressional Record, August 1, 1985, SID835: 131: andWhereas , aspartame is linked to sudden death, multiple sclerosis, lupus, and many neurodegenerative diseases, as cited in may medical texts, most notably: Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic, by H.J. Roberts, M.D., and Excitotoxins: the Taste that Kills, By Russell Blaylock, M.D., andWhereas, on November 3, 1987, Dr. Louis Elsas told Congress: “I am a pediatrician, a Professor of Pediatrics at Emory and Have spent twenty-five years in the biomedical sciences, trying to prevent mental retardation and birth defect caused by excess phenylalanine,and therein lies my basic concern, that aspartame is in fact a well known neurotoxin and teratogen which, in some as yet undefined dose, will irreversibly in the developing child or fetal brain, produce adverse effects:’ andWhereas, there are tens of thousands of case histories and anecdotal accounts from victims of aspartame poisoning who have come forward to make their case histories known; now, therefore,BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Department of Health is requested to create, within their existing budget, an evidentiary repository accessible to the public for patients and physicians to submit of the next year their cases involving victims of aspartame poisoning; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Director of Health is requested to report to the Legislature on the status of the evidentiary repository during periodic interim meetings with the Chairs of the Hawaii State Senate Committees on Health and Human Services and Public Housing, the House of Representatives Committees on Health and Human Services and Housing, and the state Attorney General; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health is requested to review all existing reports, studies, experiments, and related literature on aspartame, including clinical studies, differentiating each study by its funding source, and submit a report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the 2008 Regular Session; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Nation Academy of Sciences is requested to review all existing reports, studies, experiments, and related literature on aspartame, including clinical studies, differentiating each study by its funding source, and that, if funding is required to undertake this extended evaluation, that the appropriate funding be sought from various foundations and from Congress; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that given the enormous amount of evidence that has been compiled concerning the neurodegenerative harm it can cause, that the United States Food and Drug Administration is requested to rescind approval of aspartame immediately on a phase-out basis over six months to one year; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the members of Hawaii’s Congressional Delegation, the Commissioner of the Untied States Food and Drug Administration, the Executive Director of the National Academy of Sciences, the Director of Health, the Director of Human Services, the Attorney General, and the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.The resolution was signed by 40 percent of the Senate including: Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland,Chair, Human Services Committee, primary sponsorSenator Robert Bunda, President Emeritus, Hawaii SenateSenator Kalani English, Chairman, Transportation and International AffairsSenator Will Espero, Chairman, Public Safety CommitteeSenator Carol Fukunaga, Vice Chair, Health CommitteeSenator David Ige, Chairman, Health CommitteeSenator Les Ihara, Majority Policy LeaderSenator Donna Mercado Kim, Vice President of Hawaii SenateSenator Ron Menor, Chairman, Energy and EnvironmentSenator Clarence Nishihara, Chairman, Tourism and Government OperationsFor more information, please contact Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland at 808-586-6130; fax 808-586-6131 email mailto:senchunoakland@Capitol.hawaii.gov or Rep. Josh Green, M.D. 808-586-9605; fax 808-586-9608 From the Big Island, toll free 974-4000 + 69605E-mail or at mailto:repgreen@Capitol.hawaii.govStephen Fox is the Managing Editor, Santa Fe Sun News and Founder, New Millennium Fine Art. More at mailto:stephen@santafefineart.comMahalo:Nini'ane
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